Last month an activist insulted the Egyptian army in his blog, saying members of the army tortured protestors and tried to put down the anti-Mubarak uprisings, according to the New York Times.
The blogger wrote about what he supposedly witnessed first-hand during the uprisings. He also cited press and humanitarian group reports and posted video showing evidence of torture on the bodies of protestors.
For his efforts, Maikel Nabil is serving a three-year jail term after being sentenced by an Egyptian military court, according to the Times.
In a related story, Twitter supposedly played a huge part in the January protests in Egypt, enabling organizers to get mass messages out instantly.
Because of its role, some people are suggesting Twitter should get the Nobel Prize. It’s an interesting notion, but did the telephone win the Nobel Prize for its role in the African-American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s?
Regardless, new communications technologies are affecting activist movements, for sure.
Take the environment…
There are websites and blog sites everywhere—Environmental Communication Networks, Green Progress, TreeHugger, EcoGeek, et cetera. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of them.
But there’s also the ubiquitous Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Hulu and so on.
Here’s a scenario, past and present.
Some small-town kids somewhere get sick after swimming in a stream. Their parents discover that the industrial plant upstream is illegally dumping waste into the stream.
Past—Maybe somebody calls a local newspaper. Maybe the newspaper sends a reporter to check it out (maybe it doesn’t). Maybe the newspaper runs an article but no one beyond the region hears about it. Maybe people do hear about it and someone from the government comes to investigate (after several calls by concerned citizens in addition to the newspaper article).
All this over the course of weeks or even months.
Present—Maybe one of the parents goes back to the stream and videos suspect-looking water. Maybe the parents put the video up on YouTube. Maybe they tweet about it. Maybe environmental websites and blog sites pick it up and run links to it. Maybe it becomes international news. Maybe the government gets out there ASAP.
All this in 24 or 48 hours.
Yeah, today’s communications technologies are definitely changing the activist game.
